A friend of mine took her car to the dealer for a 10,000 mile checkup. she was concerned about her tire pressure, so the mechanic suggested she put nitrogen in the tires because as an intert gas, she would not have to air up as often. I have never heard of this. Is there something to this or is it just another case of a somewhat trusting female being bamboozled???
Costco provides this service for free, when you buy their tires. Any other firm who charges for the service is receiving far too much for the value of the service. Checking tire pressure monthly and putting in regular air is still the cheapest preventive maintenance for tires. She should invest in a tire gauge and do that instead.
If she is being charged extra for the nitrogn fill up,your description of a trusting female is correct. One should check their tire pressure as regularly with nitrogen or air.
I have nitrogen in the tires of my truck and still I check them at least once every week, which is an exageration. By the way, I did not pay extra for the nitrogen.
Bamboozle city, but lots of guys fall for it, too. Nitrogen doesn’t hurt, at least, but it’s not worth paying anything for it. Just make sure she checks her tires and fills them as needed, regular air is just fine.
There are a number of reasons for using nitrogen, but topping up the air less often is not one of them. Costco now uses nitrogen for unspecified reeasions.
In your friend’s case its the irresistable temptation to rationalize a lack of knowledge on the service guy’s part and BS a female.
If you are concerned about your blood pressure or tire pressure, check it regularly (every 2 weeks or so). Buy a good dial type tire pressure gage and keep it in the car.
Its’ one of the new scams out there. Is it true…YES…HOWEVER…CR did a study and found that filling a tire with normal air (which by the way is about 70% nitrogen anyways) and filling a tire with pure Nitrogen the delta in pressure loss was less then .5lb/yr.
Air is mostly nitrogen. Some air will always be trapped in the tire, so it was 78% nitrogen before, and now it will maybe be 85%. In any event, the leakage rate won’t change, so tire pressure will still have to be checked/adjusted at the same frequency.
Nitrogen is not inert. Helium, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, Neon, and Radon are inert gases.
Air is 78% nitrogen.
OK, for all practical purposes, nitrogen is inert at room temps and normal materials. BTW, krypton and xenon will form compounds, though they are explosively unstable.